new year, new projects?

After weeks and weeks of very mild and extremely wet weather in our part of the world all is calm now and even sunny; what a difference little sun makes! 

Even my work room is not as gloomy now and I can enjoy being here again,

 although I still find difficult to take a decent picture here.

So - new projects?

Not quite; I have been working on some stuff for a while now. 

"Crojo Retro" blanket (design by The Mercerie ) has taken me a year to get to this point, but I now have all the flowers and leaves, ready to be joined together!

So, long job yet, but I am on the case now.

When I finished Butterfly's Ball quilt I could not wait to get lost in another applique project.

I started to play with some new blocks - 

I am calling this "The Cherry Picker's Garden" (for now anyway).

And some new inspiration -

Santa brought me this lovely book, 

"Welcome to the House of Quilts" by Janine Alers,

published by Quiltmania.

I had already made one quilt featured in the book, "Surrounded by Flowers", in 2021. 

The pattern was previously published in Quiltmania magazine.

The quilt is now hanging on my workroom wall.

There are other projects in the book I am itching to make.

That is not all - another present from Santa is this bag of Scheepjes yarn,

to make "Macaroon Blossom" blanket.

As it is mostly cotton, this will be lovely summer garden project -

I can't wait!

Busy year coming up................

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2024

To all my followers and occasional visitors - 

thank you so much for another year of friendship and wonderful comments.

I wish you all prosperous and healthy and peaceful 2024; 

I wish you a good life and lots of crafting! 

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

         I wish you all 

Happy and safe Christmas!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

the last finish of the year

My Butterfly's Ball quilt is finished!

I finished it about a month ago (it is probably the largest quilt I have ever made), but the light for taking pictures has been so bad, days have been very wet and grey.

"Such a Ball and such a Feast 

       No one can forget:

Oh, if both would last, and last,

One more hour, not finish yet!

Some are sleepy, some could madly 

       Dance away till dawn,

Lovely wings are folding sadly,

One small Ant was seen to yawn.

Now the great big Moon is sinking

         And goodbyes are said,

Darkness spreads, and some are thinking,

"Who will light us home to bed?"

Hand quilted using pearl cotton and large stitch,

my favourite method.

There was quite a long autumn in out part of the world, but in November we were hit by a very cold spell, which thankfully didn't last too long. 

The weather is back to being more autumnal, with lots and lots of rain and many local floods.

These are some pictures from our cold walk on Mendip Hills last month.

in the sun

 

and in the shade

When out and about this week we popped into Stourhead Gardens;

feeling the cold from the lake; sun is rather a rare sight at the moment.

 Wrong time of day for Christmas lights unfortunately, 

but I do prefer to be warm indoors when it gets dark.

There is always the pub to get warm in !

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023

colours of autumn

It has been mild, but very wet autumn this year, not enough chance to be outside to enjoy the colours; 

the trees are still holding on to their leaves.

Luckily, we have a good view from our kitchen window of the Persian ironwood shrub, growing in the pot just outside.

Never disappoints, these spectacular colours appear every year.

We saw this much larger specimen 

of Persian ironwood in Dyffryn Gardens 

in Wales last month.

Further down the garden is the yellow of the quince tree, also in the pot, 

with reds of the ornamental cherry shrub behind.

This small quince tree has produced some fruit for the second time since we got it; 

enough for just four jars of jam, 

the last jam of the year.

Flavoured with cinnamon and little rosemary, 

it smells and tastes divine.

 The crab apple tree is still green, holding on to its fruit; normally blackbirds would have cleared this by now, which means that there is still enough food for them elsewhere.

And just to get that Christmas feeling, I am making another felt piece from the 

"12 Days of Christmas" series, 

the Swan, to join the French Hen I made a couple of years ago.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2023